South African writer/director Neill Blomkamp has announced via his Instagram account that he is to take the reigns of the Alien franchise and will be directing a new film set within the universe. The picture posted was merely a conceptual design of the iconic Xenomorph alien, from artist HR Giger. No further details have been revealed, although it can be safe to assume it isn’t Prometheus 2, or hopefully not a reboot of the original. But if one thing is certain, Blomkamp is one director that fans of the original Ridley Scott classic, and of course the James Cameron sequel, is that the franchise is in safe hands. For several years it has been clear to see how much the original films, and the whole mythology, is held in such high regard with Blomkamp that a lazy, uninspired reboot will simply not happen.

Blomkamp has previously mentioned in interviews that the main reason he got into filmmaking was in fact Alien, Aliens and another Ridley Scott classic in Blade Runner. When Prometheus was released, Blomkamp posted a series of concept art that depicted an alternate vision for the film, perhaps an earlier script that never saw the light of day. Attached to these photos, which included Ripley wearing a Space Jockey mask with the caption of “woulda rocked” and a rendering of The Derelict with Blomkamp expressing “love the world” and finally an image of the Weyland/Yulani Corp simply titled “oh shit”. This series of concept art showed a film closer to the Alien world we had come to see in the original films, with more connections to the first film rather than the loosely based final version that was released.

Neil Blomkamp was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and his debut feature film District 9 was set in his hometown, which was met with great acclaim. His love of sci-fi is well known and his visions of a dystopian future fit well in the Alien universe. District 9 was a bleak future in South Africa where alien lifeforms exist on Earth amongst humans but are treated as lower life forms. A not so subtle parallel to the racism that occurred during the Aparthid era in South Africa. His next feature film was Elysium, again set in the near future, this time the story follows where humans have pushed themselves to extinction with Earth left with very little resources. Again, a commentary of human’s current struggle with a changing planet and diminishing of resources. Chappie, Blomkamp’s third feature film is again set in Johannesburg, this time tackling the very current subject of artificial intelligence and its potential impact on all of human life. The film follows Chappie, a robot who was part of a mechanised police force, who is stolen and reprogrammed with the ability to think for himself.

Blomkamp knows more than anyone how much the Alien universe means to the fans, he himself is a huge one, so there should be no worry whether he is up to the task. It is not been confirmed if the film will be a sequel, following on from Alien Resurrection or a prequel set before the events that occurred on the Nostromo, or in fact a reboot. More than likely, and hopefully, the film will simply exist within the same universe and will be a separate film that could perhaps explore unanswered questions or delve into the origins of the alien itself. These kind of questions were hoped to have been answered by Prometheus, but instead raised far more questions instead. If an Alien reboot is in fact in the works, then at least it is being dealt with by someone who truly cares for the Alien series, and hopefully won’t be set in Johannesburg.

Do you love ghost stories? How about ghosts that’s out for vengeance? Well if that’s what you’re looking for then you’d definitely want to watch Unfriended.

This movie was actually at first going to be called Offline but the crew deems it to be not so eye catchy then it was premiered last July 20, 2014 at the Fantasia Festival with it being released as Cybernatural but then they changed it again and here it is Unfriended. It was decided that this movie would have its wide theatrical release on April 17, 2015.

The trailer showed a video tape of a girl who looks very wasted. It was later revealed that the girl in the video is Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman), the most popular girl in her school and that she committed suicide, three days after her video was posted online due to humiliation. That all happened a year ago, prior to the present date of the actual movie. It was the day of her anniversary, and six of her classmates—who were always mean to her because she was Miss popular and they were well unpopular—have decided to talk to one another via Skype but they most definitely did not expect a seventh person to join them. And what’s more shocking is that this anonymous person is using Laura’s old account. This anonymous person also accused them that they know what really happened on April 9, 2013, the day Laura’s video was posted. This anonymous person threatened them for the truth and if someone logged out or stopped talking someone would die. As the chat progresses, the truth is slowly being revealed along other secrets that would test their friendship altogether. Can these six friends survive?
This movie isn’t just some horror film because the main theme of this storyline is bullying. Don’t tell me you haven’t been bullied, is a bully yourself or have seen someone be bullied in school because that’s just absurd. Every once in a while there most definitely have the bully/bullies and the bullied one in school.

Now the movie didn’t literally mean to scare the crap out of your bully or commit suicide then come back as a ghost. This story is for all bullies out there that they shouldn’t pick on someone because you might be pleasured by it but your victim, not so much. You not only give them scars physically but emotionally also. Now back to the story.
As you can see in the trailer, it didn’t have that much change in the scenery since it was said that they can’t log out but really throughout the movie, they freak out in front of the computer and there was even a time that they had to watch something gruesome happen to one of them. That’s the only flaw I saw so far but then again maybe the whole movie would give it poetically justice since it was highly praised by the critics who probably watched it at the Fantasia Festival.

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22 years will have passed since the first Jurassic Park was released back in 1993 and terrified pretty much everyone who went to see it. Following the disappointment that was Jurassic Park 3 back in 2001, the fourth film in the series, Jurassic World has finally got a release date, and its first trailer. Amazingly after more than two decades, the film has stood the test of time, and still looks good today.

With very little computer generated scenes to show its age, something many films of the 90s suffer from now, the incredible animatronics of the dinosaurs still look realistic. Jurassic World has been in development for well over a decade and is finally being released in June 2015. Through countless script changes, delays, cancellations and casting changes, the journey has not been an easy one.

Steven Spielberg, director of the first two films, came up with an idea for a fourth film whilst on the set for Jurassic Park 3. An idea he later claimed he wish they had used for the third film. In December 2002, Spielberg officially confirmed the fourth Jurassic Park for a summer 2005 release, claiming it had the best story since the first one. At this point, it was even heavily rumoured that the old original cast members could be reprising roles in the new film. Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill and Richard Attenborough all confirmed they were to play the roles of Ian Malcolm, Dr Alan Grant and John Hammond respectively. The film continued to be pushed back over the next several years, with countless changes made with writers, actors and directors all joining and leaving before anything concrete.

Various plots were considered throughout the pre-production phase, including a departure from the previous 3 films and no longer set on an island, where the dinosaurs reached mainland Costa Rica. Malcolm and Hammond would be bought in with a group of experts to investigate the dinosaurs breeding uncontrollably and no doubt causing a worldwide panic. Another idea was that the main character, Nick Harris, a mercenary, had been hired by a Swiss corporation to train several genetically modified dinosaurs to be used in rescue missions. An early draft of this script was leaked on the internet after hackers intercepted an email from Steven Spielberg. An even stranger plot was the next draft from John Sayles, which involved genetically modified dinosaur-human hybrids. But even with all the film scripts floating around, none of which satisfied Spielberg, so the project was put on indefinite hold until the right script came along.

Over the next several years, various writers were approached by Steven Spielberg and plots were discussed but were still no closer to a final idea. The breakthrough came in 2012 when Spielberg announced they had found a writer, David Protosevich, and the film would have a 2013 release date as confirmed by Universal. As Protosevich was working on two story ideas for the film, it was later announced that yet again, these ideas did not fit the film Spielberg had imagined so the project was shelved again. In the end it was Colin Trevorrow (Safety not Guaranteed) who would be bought on board to direct, joining him would be Derek Connolly to co-write. With a director and writer in place, the film started to take shape finally as Chris Pratt was announced as the lead.

On September 10th 2013, Universal Studios announces the name for the fourth Jurassic Park as Jurassic World. It was later announced that film would be shot on Panavision 35mm and 65mm film. The reasons being to match the aesthetic look of the original as well as a personal preference of Spielberg himself. For those wondering if the incredible animatronic dinosaurs are returning, its good news as Legacy Effects, the company behind the original three films’ special effects , have been bought back.

The film is set for release for June 2015, and the full trailer will be released during Super Bowl XLIX on February 1st.

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With The Walking Dead taking its yearly Winter hiatus with its mid-season break, fans now have to wait until February before we next see Rick and the gang. In the meantime, for those missing their fill of zombies, how about a delve into the history of the walking dead and how they came to be so popular.

The modern zombies have had an illustrious career in Hollywood, from the first onscreen iteration in White Zombie (1932) to of course, The Walking Dead. But the origins of zombies go back way beyond that, all the way to Haitian folklore. Sorcerers, or Bokor, were said to bring the dead back to life and controlled them as slaves. This is where the word zombie came from, the idea that these creatures lost all sense of willpower and merely lived to serve. The zombie has since evolved to a mindless beast left with only their desire to eat human flesh.

Did you know there is a secret untapped and little known source of full length movies on the web? No i didn’t either until i heard about free to watch public domain movies.

Free movies from the public domain

These are films that are usually of a vintage nature (that means a few years old to you and me), or sometimes more modern films that have slipped out of copyright and entered the public domain. Alternatively sometimes the film’s owners decide to contribute it for public consumption and they forgo any royalties.

This means that no one owns copyright on the films and you can watch them for free. So if you can look past the age of the movies, then you get an amazing number of classic full-length motion picture films, b-movies, cartoons, documentaries and other videos for no cost.

It’s paradise city for those of you cutting the cord, and as a bonus many can be downloaded for offline viewing.

You can watch most of these movies from any connected hardware that can run a browser, and from anywhere in the world. From smartphones, tablets, computers, Macs and streaming boxes. No fees, software, or registration is needed to download or play the movie.

The only slight problem is determining whether a movie is out of copyright. You can sometimes gauge it from the year the film was made. For instance any film made before the mid 1920’s will usually be copyright free. But many films made up to 1964 are also free to use,view or download.

But the good news is that you don’t need to worry about copyright details, you can just visit one of the many websites that cater to free public domain movies. We have compiled a list of the best public domain movie websites here.

Crackle, the free streaming service owned by Sony are bringing their service to selected Smart TV sets. The service which is available in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia offer hundreds of movies and shows for free.

Crackle comes to more Smart TVs

The service is already (unsurprisingly) available on Sony Bravia connected TVs and Blu-ray players, as well as Google TV devices. But now it is also available on a limited range of other Smart TV’s from LG and Samsung in the UK, Australia, and the US. Canadian and US owners of Vizio TV’s can also access Crackle. Samsung also get the service on selected Blu-ray players as well.

Speaking for about the move, Sony Pictures Television senior VP for digital networks and games, Phil Lynch said, “The penetration of IP-connected TVs and Blu-ray players in the living room is rapidly growing and these devices are fast becoming the new standard.”

The Crackle app can be downloaded from the relevant app store, and offers hundreds of movies and full television shows with more added each month. Although the content is not as vast or up to date as a pay services, being free makes it great for casual streamers.

If your not the owner of the hardware listed then never fear, the Crackle service is already available on a number of connected devices from tablet, smartphone, computer and video game consoles. Read our Crackle review.